Oscars for Commercials

"Ein shampoo, das mehr kann," marveled a handsome couple as they lathered through a co-educational shampoo.

"C'est au fond d'un regard que Von decouvre une ame," insisted the soulful pitchman for a mascara pencil.

"Though she wears bracelets up to here, mink up to her ear, a lady isn't dressed unless her legs are too," trilled an American soprano.

For 3 1/2 days, 698 such filmed commercials assaulted the senses of judges from eleven countries gathered in Venice last week for the fifth annual festival of the International Screen Advertising Services. Though their eyes dimmed and their ears ached, the judges--all advertising executives--insisted that commercials the world over are getting better.

From television and movie screens (in

Europe more commercials are seen in movie theaters than on TV) came a parade of chimpanzees peddling tea, a horse in a German kitchen praising a new refrigerator, the Loch Ness monster breathing fire to light a Scotsman's cigarette. American cowboys peddled Scotch whisky in Spanish, and an African witch doctor praised British beer. Victims of auto accidents emerged with their shirts clean because they had been washed with France's Pax soap. "You can always tell the country of origin without a catalogue, even if you don't spot the language." said Judge Thomas P. Olesen of Denmark. "French commercials are artificial. The English always have humor and typical British understatement. Italian commercials have good music. Germans are good but boring. Latin Americans feature the hard sell, just like the U.S."

The Venice grand prize went to an Italian cartoon commercial, "All Over the World"--a wild melange of cloaked Parisian policemen, covered wagons in the American West, a sexy Brazilian samba dancer, remorseless Russians firing a dog-filled Sputnik into space, and finally Italy, emerging in a burst of sun and sea. Sponsor: "Stock" Brandy.

The U.S. won only two minor prizes: for an animated-cartoon dialogue between a cat and a lion extolling Calo Cat Food and for a series of still pictures backed up by a sophisticated ballad ("Some girls think summer means stockings goodbye. If that's your trick you're an unhip chick") plugging Chemstrand nylons. Unfortunately for U.S. admen, their prize TV pitchmen were not entered in the Venice competition. Explained Ray Goulding, who plays Bert Piel: "They don't dig beer over there. And it's hard to get a head on a bottle of Chianti."

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